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Land of Pictures
Sitemap Picture Commentary : Click on Pictures to see their full-sized version. Of course there was a third option : That Schrodlinger couldnt get the cat to stay in the box... This is what Trolleys from the 40s looked like. Pacific Electric Trolley (Los Angeles) from LA Noire. 30's era trolley system equipment. They lasted until the very early 60s. Columbia allegedly built for a Worlds Fair would have transportation for fairgoers, with period styled vehicles taking them around to see the Showcase City In The Sky. Unfortunately, Infinite BS only needed it as a game mechanism, and even that was severely modified and curtailed to a shadow of what it should have been. Back in the early days when computers used tubes and early transistors were extremely expensive(like $50-$100 each), computer memory capacity was a significant problem. The Selectron was a type of memory that stored its bits using phosphor fluorescence as its storage method. This tube could hold 256 'bits' and a row of them (along with a pile of tube electronics the size of a small car) gave the computer its Read And Write Memory (RAM), used to hold programs and working data. Within a few years, this was superceded by much cheaper/more compact Magnetic Core memory, which lasted into the 70s and the manufacture of IC memory. A Selectron memory tube with the capacity of 4096 bits, which wasn't produced successfully (this was the late 40s, early 50's). William's Tubes worked similarly (much larger and shaped more like a display CRT). The guts of one of Fink Mfg. Vending Machines in Columbia. Are all those strange openings the slots for Bullion and Jewelry that somehow were 'money' in Infinite BS? Somewhere there is a Bill slot so customers have less a problem when some items cost as much as $4000 (is it any wonder virtually noone in Columbia used Fink's Vigors when they cost most than someones yearly income ?) Passenger section from the Zeppelin Hindenburg. Columbia might have been built minus the Quantum Bullshit (sorry Quantum Mechanics has nothing to do with levitation -- you might as well have said Pixie Dust). But Lighter-Than-Air technologies might be plausible, as long as the 'brick' is false decorative tinplate and much of the solid building mass is the equivalent of styrofoam. There would be a stadium-sized helium balloon above each City Block. Columbia would be orbitting the World pushed by an atmospheric Jet Stream - giant sails allowing tacking to steer it a bit. Let them develop some Solar Power early to give them something to work with to power the city. Leave off the bad fantasy pseudo-science crap and concentrate on the circa 1900 social issues (real ones) for the dystopiac plot. Fairly complicated looking control display (looks like a Mercury Rocket Capsule), if you compare it to even a modern day railroad engine's controls. I can see some game manager telling the asset artist "needs more lights and things"... Yes, Bioshocks Iconic image wasnt original. Artists' idea of what a 'trolley car' is. Too small, too narrow, no seats inside, track length virtually useless. A caricature that the word 'poor' doesnt even spell its patheticness. The Metro Trolleys would have been the backbone component of Rapture's Transit system, carrying the bulk of its passengers (versus the more expensive Bathysphere component). Very bizarre Trolley car. May have been an older 'Freight' type car which had to be reactivated/used for passengers after Atlas's terrorists had wrecked more recent passenger type Trolleys. Photoshopped a bit more to show what the (game) Trolleys could have looked like (still the wrong shape/design). The oversized wheeled 'trucks' look like they were stolen from a 'Trainz' mod'ing freightcar model. More Cardpunch machine. I actually long ago had to use one of these. You type a letter wrong and you start over on a new blank card. They seem to be used in place of a computer 'terminal' in Minervas Den, when it really isnt one. You punch a bunch of cards(one line of code per card), then take your stack of cards (sometimes a very large stack) and put it into a card reader machine. That 'batch' submits your program, it runs, and your output is printed out on a large Line Printer machine (thats it -- NO interactive display). This one appears to have a label 'Ryan' which could indicate that Ryan owned a computer equipment company. Card Punches were used by many businesses to generate cards for accounting, billing, inventory control, as well as programming. Many of the early computers were little more than semi-programmable tabulating machines that were fed their data via punchcards. The utterly useless short RTA Trolley tracks were a caricature in BS1 (they (the developers) didn't want to put any real effort into it, I guess...) But at the Olympus Heights end of Apollo Square's 'branch' of tracks, it looks as if they had the idea of the track continuing on to someplace else (looks intentionally blocked up). Now the other branches dont have these, so are still in a state of 'useless and pathetically incomplete'. A real (as in useful) Trolley system would have continuous lines crossing the city, often crisscrossing it to offer a multitude of connections between all the groups/clusters of buildings. Trolleys (rather than the inefficient/expensive taxicab-like Bathyspheres) would be the primary transit method, carrying the majority of the city's travelers/commuters. Note that a Trolley Viaduct also can serve as a way to get from place to place by walking (or bicycling) if the Trolley is not working. "Who needs Quantum Bullshit when you have Clockwork goodness to drive you through the Aether ?" - Fink, commenting on his Clockwork Rocket Engine. The Tear opened up, and Fink gave the man 30 cases of Scotch as the other detailed how a thing called 'Warp Drive' worked. Home Com-pu-tor. It probably can be used to keep 'recipes' and to write letters. Unfortunately, the Civil War interferened with McClendon's Spread Sheet program project, which would have made the thing actually useful. Cleaned up, but is really still the wrong design - an incredible lack of space inside for passengers. The Orange Trolley Car way above (from LA Noir) is more like what it should have been for the consolidated Rapture Transit Authority. Created by taking the Austin Transit Map (from BS1), and incorporating the (partial) AE Map diagram (from BS2), and filling in a few details and added building clusters. The solid black lines are 'streets' which the Trolleys go through. Mechanism that might have been used for the real Diving Hard Suits needed by Rapture's depth (sorry canvas diving apparatus wouldn't have worked until MUCH later when ADAM enhancement would have allowed divers to routinely work at pressure many times as much as the old diving gear -- that would be when the majority of Raptures construction was LONG finished). Hydraulic actuators eliminated complicated wrist and finger joints and seals which are problematic at the pressures Rapture was built at. This Bathysphere model which could raise itself from the water (via a ramp) would have been the real 'Automobile of Rapture', greatly simplifying the facilities required to maintain these vehicles. The thing still weighed 15 tons (equaling the amount of water it displaced) but would have been far more practical for Raptures growing suburbs. Its teardrop shape (the epitome of streamlining) allowed the models built to win several Bathysphere Racing Competitions just before Raptures Civil War started. More Diagram modified to make better sense. BS2 partial RR map added to Austin Bathysphere positions. Self Cleaning Toilet created by Fink that Suchong wanted to steal the design for... How many players would do a "good" ending now, if they looked like this ? Even moreso if they all sounded like the zombies in World War Z... 1940s era "Super-Power" (steam technology) RR locomotive which existed alongside military Jet planes and the V2 Rocket - yet for mundane things older technology is always leveraged. The old canvas suits (on right) didnt hold out the water pressure (were pumped up to the pressure of the depth they operated in) and thus subjected the diver to sideeffects like 'the bends' and nitrogen narcosis. The Hard Suit held out the pressure (its at sea level pressure inside) but at cost of being much more complicated and clumsy/limited (the canvas suits werent that great to begin with), but could operate at greater depths. Imagine how tiring working in a suit like this would be for any real length of time. Evolution of the Columbia Skyhook that would have fit the original track mechanism -- that with a chain drive running inside C-Rails. The large version - the teeth fit between the chain's links to pull the User along - fixed speed, non-reversible (you had to switch rails ??). Either way, dropping down to grab it didnt work mechanically (lucky because doing that would pull one or more of your joints out of their sockets). Sorry, no chainsaw action to spiff up the game with gratuitous violence - so was discarded. Interesting use of Ring Joints/Seals to give appendage flexibility. Whatever depth Rapture was at, something of this sort had to be used versus the canvas suit would have had to be used when building the city (excluding pre-fabrication assembly close to the surface). Note- workers who did near-surface work need not ever go to Rapture. Its even the right shape for a building built to resist the immense pressure down there in the dark deep. Curves are your friend, especially for windows (the rediculous 30 foot across FLAT windows in Neptunes Bounty were ludicrous, not just because they have to hold upto the equivalent weight of a Saturn 5 rocket, pressing in its center, but also because at a real industrial site they wouldn't have/need anything so extravagently expensive -- when the rest of the place is obviously so low-rent). Smaller windows to look out in wonder through worked just fine in the rest of the game. And More No huge/oversized wheels/trucks jacking the thing needlessly off the ground (and fairings/skirting to help keep passengers out from under the wheels). Could still go for the Bathysphere-like brass decoration motif without looking so stupid/gangly. A little research goes a long way (and since these systems have had a renaissance in the last few decades, there are PLENTY of real examples for the artists to have seen). And Suddenly Sofia Lamb lurched out of a Tear, wild eyed and dressed in her insane asylum patient clothing, just in time for the Luteces' first Building Float Test's failure to land on her, precipiatating a choir troop of a midget minstrel singers (auditioning for a gig on one of the Columbia Show City entertainment venues) to sing "You Crush My Heart" . (perhaps inspiring L Frank Baum's scene in his book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, circa 1900) Its hard to think that the Bathyspheres seen in Rapture could have inspired Prentis Mill to speak of a 'Bathysphere Craze' (said likely years earlier than the Civil War if it precipitated the decline of his Atlantic Express). More personal submersible units might have resembled this one, which has more of the 50s 'fin' style and streamlining and hopefully less expensive requirements to make them more like automobiles. Note- smaller compartment means it could weigh alot less, and with wheels underneath, it might have a chance to roll out of the water by itself (saving on expensive lift equipment being needed at EVERY dock). Like an airplane, it is NOT like just fixing a car. Instead of falling to the ground to crash and burn (as planes do), you sink to your cold watery grave (and its considered lucky if you are crushed instantly instead of slowly asphyxiating in your new deep sea tomb). This is almost funny if it werent so pathetic. Dont the developers KNOW how blackboards even got used? No clean perfect diagram with perfectly neat and spaced text filling the surface on any real one (in a reality universe). SO here they tie in the Infinite BS 'Tears' to justify the existance of the Vita-Chamber - now being Suchong's creation, and ready to go into full production - when Suchong has only had HOW LONG(?) after just seeing Tears himself and having also expressed his disdain for the 'Bullshit' as he called the technology in BS2. (Well Fink apparently had this magic ability in Infinite BS too - just look at something and 'Presto' he's producing it as a consumer product). Deployed WITH only Ryans code? Rather a poor understanding of Rapture events and even a reasonable flow of time, the way they compressed all these story elements - old and new (including the McClendon Auto-Sink) into their absurd DLC plot. REMIND me to not buy any consumer product from these game dev people if they think such items are produced with such delusional fantasyland simplicity. Too many things wrong to do it justice here. Cute idea, but Sorry Bioshock wasnt supposed to be Fantasy (misshapen drills just dont work as grappling hooks). Seen through huge windows even more absurd than the ones in Neptunes Bounty. (You'd also think that spending an INFINITE sum of money for such a marvelous huge impossible window that they could have easily managed to have the large pipes located elsewhere, so as to NOT spoil the intended view ???) "Carnegie" - the Steel industrialists rival 'floating city'. With the US Government building Columbia, and not wanting to foot the bill, there is one place the money would have come from. Of course those who invested expected to get their hands on the technology which made it possible. Yet More : Typical Public Safety Awareness. A 500 ton Train cant stop when you walk into its path... Something not shown in Bioshock was that some of the AE trains traversed tunnels that were NOT in the Ocean (were air-filled). Various terrain ridges were burrowed through instead of going up-and-over or around. This is a Freight Train (the AE blueprint seen in game (BAS2) was a 'locomotive' unit like this). With all the comings-and-goings and to-and-fros between dimensions and the Timetravel BS, even Fink started to get worried after meeting himself for the third time. Typical fast food restaurant minion after Fontaine took ADAM to the Surface World Saturnine Prophesy which foresaw the stupid story/plotline of Infinite BS (its all gibberish). If you use the Cheats (fly and ghost) to get behind the door when the (Fort Frolic) 'ghost' story of Jasmine Jolenes murder is playing you can see a pair of Sander Cohens doing a pole dance (used to create the weird shadows you see around the closed door). It may hint that Cohen had more than a little to do with Jolenes death. In Rapture, and especially Infinite, this wouldn't be strange at all. . . . . ---- ----